I have always advise my readers not to buy furniture from Ikea, but I think most still buy due to the excellent marketing strategy, it is hard to resist if you've visited their showroom.

You can definitely buy the accessories from Ikea, but if you're looking for big furniture like sofa, table or wardrobe, please consider properly. Is it really value for money?

I've bought a bookcase from Ikea many years ago, the bookcase collapsed after I arranged my books on it; when I was still staying with my brother, he bought a shoes cabinet from Ikea and it collapsed after a week of use. So I have always thought that Ikea's furniture is not lasting.

Early this year, when I was looking for a bookcase for my children, my hubby suggested we give Ikea a second chance. He thought, maybe the first bookcase we bought was too cheap and was not able to hold the number of books we have. I agreed with him and we visited its showroom and we set aside a higher budget for the bookcase.

After a few round of 'investigation', we thought this cabinet is more sturdy and should be able to hold the children's books:


This cabinet looked sturdy, it cost me around $130++, for this price for just two drawers, I would expect it to be of better quality.  But sadly, it still broke down after a week.

 This time round, the bottom of the cabinet cracked and warped, as shown in the picture.

A closer examination of the 'wood', can you consider the material as 'wood'? It is more like a hard paper to me, not even the low cost plywood material!

Ikea has definitely ruined the second chance I've given to them, for this incident, I'll definitely not buy any furniture from them in future.

I bought a small bookcase from NTUC (NTUC! Not even a furniture shop!) at just $16 (after 20% discount). It serves the purpose well and I could stuff all my children's books on it without fearing of it collapsing. This is truly 'value for money'.

My 2 year old girl scribbled on my TV console while I was busy with something. To my horror the scribbles were by pencil and pen and covered a very large area of my TV console. As my TV console was in white glossy laminate, it was extremely obvious!
I couldn't use any strong detergent or rough sponge to wipe the marks for fear that it would scratch the laminate. I tried using tissue paper with a little water but the marks was too stubborn to be removed, while I was almost giving up, I thought of the UIC soft srub which I normally use for washing my stainless steel pots. I use UIC soft scrub to wash my stainless steel pots as it is not a strong cleaning agent and will not scratch the surface of my pots, and now I discovered its usage other than washing the pot, ahah!
I'm surprised that this UIC soft scrub worked extremely well when used to clean my glossy laminate, I just put a small dot (about the size of a 5 cents coin) to the wet tissue paper and wiped across the pen and pencil marks. The marks disappeared with just one wipe, no strength or whatever hard work was needed! I will definitely use it to wipe my glossy laminate in future, especially those cabinets in the kitchen which are oily after the cooking :)
This UIC soft srub can be bought from NTUC at S$1.55 only:

How much do you need to revamp your toilet? It might cost you a bomb although it could be the smallest room in your house.
Here is the cost I spent on my master bedroom toilet:

The overview of my small toilet on the side with basin and mirror:

Storage mirror cabinet - $170
Wall mirror from IKEA - $19.90
Baron basin and toilet bowl (promotional price for buying these 2 together) - $330
Water tap - $55
Vanity cabinet with glass door - $600 approx (pls click here for my carpentry quotation)

A closer look on the basin:

I like this design, it is easy to clean and maintain. However, I should buy a bigger one as this is a bit smaller given the size of my vanity top. My advice to all is to measure your top before buying the basin.

A closer look on the tap:

If you think $55 for a water tap is expensive, you're wrong. Many toilet accessories sold in branded shops are chrome, not stainless steel, this water tap is stainless steel, and I paid for its design. Click here for my purchases from Royal Fanco.


This mirror cabinet is worth buying especially if you've a small toilet. I should have bought a bigger one since my wall can accommodate the size. You can keep your toiletries, perfumes, cosmetic items in the cabinet.

My vanity cabinet with swing glass doors:

My carpenter suggested a sliding door, but in order to save the cost, I chose to have this type of swing doors. So far I've no problem with it. You may click on the label of "carpentry" on the top left corner to see my other carpentry works.


Wall lights from lighting.com - $48


This is the toilet bowl I bought together with the basin at $330


Toilet paper holder - $18
Bidet - $12
Toilet bowl offset - $8 (you'll need this to fix the toilet bowl to the floor, measure the hole before going to purchase the toilet bowl as there're a few sizes of the toilet bowl, your contractor should advise you on this)


Double towel bar - $32
Toilet brush and holder - FOC from Royal Fanco


Crizto "i" hook - $22


Shower screen with stainless steel handle - $350
My husband wanted a clean look on the shower screen, thus it was designed without any holder at the top of the glass, but after moving in, I found it not secure as the shower screen is quite big and sometimes when we close the door too hard it would shake, thus I paid another $100 to get the glass factory to fix an iron bar at the top of the shower screen to hold it. You can see the iron bar from the reflection of the mirror cabinet.


Rain shower set (including handheld spray, on-off button etc) $159.50
I forgotten the price for the shampoo holderr, but I think is around $28

A closer look on the rain shower headset:

Frankly, I'm not a fan of rain shower, I shall blog about it in my next article.


Matt finished swing glass door - $500

Lastly, tiling for floor and wall - $2200
I like the colour and combination of my toilet tiles. But if given a choice again, I'll choose a darker colour for the floor, so that stains are not so easily spot.

If you sum up the above prices, the total is around $4600. This cost does not include the hacking cost (I spent $2900 to hack off all the tiles in my toilets, rooms and kitchen) and some miscellaneous items which I do not remember.

All the accessories are purchased from Royal Fanco unless I stated so.

All the iron stuff you see in my toilet are stainless steel, consider the material and the workmanship of it, I do not find my cost of $4600 expensive, especially this is my master bedroom toilet for which the size is bigger than the common toilet.

The feature wall is designed by myself after copy here and there from magazines and renovation forums. So, you might have seen similar designs from somewhere. My requirement for the feature wall is again, simple, I don't like complicated designs which waste resources. Example, many times you see those feature walls designed by the ID are with spotlights, spotlights might create nice effect for photo taking, but I can assure you that you'll not on the lights most of the time. So I do away with all the spotlights, or reflection lights, instead, I use downlights on my ceiling which give me clear view and classy design.


My feature wall is full height around 76 sft. For the price please click here.

This is how the feature wall look in my hall, beside my piano. The 2 display shelves above my piano were given by the carpenter FOC.


A closer look on the lamination. I've paid more to get a thicker white gloss laminate as some commented in the forum that for glossy laminate, you can see the wave or curve easily especially if the laminate is too thin.


TV console with sliding door:


A closer look at the workmanship:


Do visit other pages on the carpentry works.

I hacked the existing wardrobes in my bedrooms and built new ones. Here are pictures of the wardrobe in my master bedroom.
This is a full height wardrobe, the size of around 7 ft, with sliding doors, built in sliding mirror. It costs more than a normal wardrobe due to the height and the glossy laminate, for my quotation please refer here.

Full height wardrobe is a must to me, as I do not like to clean the dust accumulated at the top of the wardrobe, and sliding door can save the space in my room. Everything must be kept inside the wardrobe, I like a clean look of it:


Take a look of the following if my wardrobe is those transparent type or those racks without doors:

Is so messy right?

One feature I like about this wardrobe is the built in mirror, which allows me to view my outfit and save my room space at the same time:


A closer look at the mirror:


I would not say the workmanship is perfect, I would say it is acceptable given the cheap price. I engaged a contractor from Malaysia to do all the carpentry work for me, they do have company in Singapore though. A closer look at the workmanship:

Many had asked me for the quotation, you may refer to the quotation given below. However, do note that this can only be a guideline to you, as my renovation was done in October 2010.
( living )
1.Feature wall with laminate finishing 76 sgft = $1596.00
2.Tv console A/L sdiling door 6 ft = $660.00
3.Feature wall with mirror 41sqft = $900.00


( kitchen )
1Ttop cabinet 8.5ft =$722.50
2.Low cabinet with 14.5ft = $1232.50
3.solid surfale top16.5ft =$1320.00
4.Stainless steel packing 1pc =$100.00

( Bed room 1 )
1.Wordrabe with swing door 7ft =$1260.00


( Bed room 2 )
1.Wordrabe and bookcase with swing door 6.5ft =$1170.00


( Master bedroom )
1.Wardrobe with sliding door 7.5ft =$1500.00
2.vanity cabinet with A/L door and solid surface top 4ft =$680

Total=$11141.00


# white gloss laminate # 0.7mm 1pc =$46.00 ---- 2mm 1pc =$200.00

1. Tv console 1pc =$154.00
2. kitchen cabinet 4pcs =$616.00
3. Bed room 1. 3pcs =$462.00
4. Bed room 2. 3pcs =$462.00
5. Master room 4pcs =$616.00

I have negotiated here and there with my carpenter, the final figure I paid is $11,000 in total.

For pictures on my wardrobe, click here.

For pictures on my feature wall, click here

For pictures on my mirror at the dining area, click here

As you might be interested in getting the contact, here it goes:

Ah xiong +6016 7051751 (Msia) ; +65 81849871

Please tell them you're introduced by Winnie from Hougang for a better quote.

Update:
I'm getting his Singapore contact, I'll be updating here soon.

No, I have a full length TV feature wall with console custom made in my living room, I do not want this bulky fixture in my master bedroom. I want a specious bedroom, thus the lesser furniture the better.
Many people told me I cannot just hang my TV like that, but I give it a try. I get my contractor to fix the power point in the middle of the wall, where my TV will be. My 29 inch Sharp had been mounted there for a year, so far so good, no falling off.


It was mounted on the wall, beside the entrance to my toilet in my master bedroom. A clean and sharp arrangement. No extra space taken.


Even the person mounting the TV for me told me might not be able to do this, I told him just give it a try, and roll up the wire at the back of the TV, as long as I don't see them.


Yes, those wires do get dusty over the time, but who cares? You don't get to see them, and cleaning is not a problem if you want to.


So if you ask me, "Do I need to buy a console in my room? Do I need to build a feature wall?" The answer is no!